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cauliflower

Canning and Preserving: The Season So Far

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I am a “learning by doing” type of person, but I’ve never enjoyed group classes. I may not get much from reading instructions, but I do like to make my mistakes in the privacy of my own home, on my own terms and on my own schedule. It’s not the most efficient method of knowledge acquisition, I’ll grant you, but it’s what has always worked for me.

Last year a lot of my study concerned bread, particularly sourdough. I trialed, I errored, and I learned a lot. And now I really feel like I know something, something satisfying in the same way that working to play the violin well provided but that getting a good grade never did. (There are actually a lot of music/bread parallels, I’ve discovered.)

Anyway, whereas last year’s kitchen was filled with yeasts and starters and flour everywhere, this year I’ve been working my way into canning. I know, I know, I’m very late to this party and riding the trend almost at the point of cliche, but it turns out this is a good thing because everyone and their sister published a beautiful book on canning and I am now actively applying these textbook lessons. (Yes, due to the need for food safety, in this case I’m even reading and following instructions to the letter.)

Canning and Preserving

Since I am buying my produce from the market (heavily shaded urban gardening is just not high-yield), my batches so far have been just a few jars each, but this also keeps things manageable (and, if I screw something up royally, it won’t be such a waste). So far, we’ve got (as seen above): Classic Dill Pickles and Lemony Pickled Cauliflower from Marisa McClellan’s Food in Jars: Preserving in Small Batches Year-Round, plus her small batch recipes for Rhubarb Chutney and Honey Sweetened Strawberry Jam. And finally, a Gooseberry Jam from The Preservation Kitchen that I found especially attractive due to its comparatively low sugar content and the addition of vanilla.

Canning and Preserving: CauliflowerCanning and Preserving: Gooseberries

I also broke down and, even though I certainly don’t feel like eating sauerkraut at this point in the season, I sliced up that 5 lb. cabbage lurking in my fridge (a gift from a friend’s farm) to at least make some for later. I now have another bucket of it set out to ferment in the corner. It’ll be due to process in a few weeks.

The next request I’ve had is for ketchup. If you have a lead on a great recipe, please do let me know. I’m competing with the ghost memory of a grandma’s prize-winning concoction, so I’ll need something stellar.

Cauliflower: That Is the Question

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I have a particular peeve regarding cooks who regularly lament, “I love X but my husband hates it, so we never get to eat it anymore…”

I mean, I get it: you love to cook, and you love to cook for the one you love. I’m right there with you. But if you love to cook (and eat!) something the rest of the family has no interest in, well then, all the more for you from time to time. Unless they’re too short to reach the counter yet, they can get by on something they can fix for themselves if they’d rather abstain.

In my house, this kind of discussion leads directly to the cauliflower. I can’t say I’d dream about it at night if it were suddenly wiped out, but I like it. Well enough to snatch one up at my CSA this past weekend, even knowing that my husband would not touch a bite of the dastardly vegetable.

With a recipe that’s pretty much “Mix 3T olive oil and 1 T sweet curry in a bowl. Toss with one head cauliflower, and bake at 325˚F for 30 minutes, stirring half-way through,” no one needs to get very emotional over it. In the end, it’s just another bowl of fabulous looking vegetables: To be or not to be enjoyed.